One of the most successful European strike aircraft of the last 30 years has been the Panavia Tornado. Developed by a consortium of British, German, and Italian companies, This swing-wing aircraft has proven itself to not only be quite versatile, but quite successful as well.

As with all military planes, it is nearing the end of its operational life, and since it has been such a major success for the Luftwaffe in particular, it is appropriate that it should be the first offering in a new series of books from Double Ugly. Touted as an Aircraft Reference for Enthusiasts and Modelers, its 208 landscape format pages certainly live up to that subtitle. I should point out that this book only covers German Tornados, so you will see nothing in here about British or Italian aircraft or variants that are peculiar to those nations, so no GR.1 and no ADV. This is strictly on the IDS and the ECR versions and units extant since the turn of the century.

A book in landscape format is not the norm, however, for what is very much a photo book, it is most appropriate. It allows for full pace photos without having to resort to crossing 'the trench' in between opposing pages.

The book is dual language in English and German. Same for the captions and I am pleased to note that the English captions are in bold and a ton easier for me to read than in some of their previous books. Apparently a white-backed page is verboten at DU, as every single page has a highly washed out photo of a Tornado in it. I find this makes any standard text more difficult to read, but that may be just me.

Things start with a history of the aircraft and that includes the various updates and sub-types that have been built. We then get treated to page after page of superb photographs of pretty much every inch of the aircraft. This includes the various systems as well as the various 'things under wings' that can be carried by the Tornado. Interspersed with these detail images are some pretty outstanding full page images of the aircraft, most of them depicting special schemes. This is all topped off by inclusion of a separate fold out sheet that has plans of the aircraft in 1/48 scale. These drawings are based on measurements taken from a Tornado in the Deutsche Museum in Munich during 2011

This is by far the best book on the details of the Tornado that I have seen. It will take a lot to top this one and I do not think it will ever be done. It is a book that is a gold mine of information, especially for the modeler and one that I give my highest recommendation.

September 2012

My thanks to AirDoc for the review book. You can find these at your local hobby shop and if not, ask them to order them for you. You can also order direct by e-mailing them at www.airdoc.eu

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